America's Funniest Home Videos
America's Funniest Home Videos (often simply abbreviated to AFV) is an ABC show in which viewers are able to send in videotapes containing humorous, silly, or "just plain dumb" acts featuring themes such as children, pets, personal injury, or mistakes. It is produced by Vin Di Bona and Steve Paskay. It was based on the Tokyo Broadcasting System show Fun with Ken and Kato Chan, which featured a segment in which viewers were invited to send in their home video clips. Every week, 3 videos are chosen by the producers and voted on by the studio audience. The winner wins US$10,000 and is in the running for the $100,000 prize at the end of the season, the runner-up receives $3,000, while 3rd Place banks $2,000. In 2005 The Muppets guest starred on the $100,000.00 show The show has a long history, beginning in 1989 with actor/comedian Bob Saget as host. His trademark was to make humorous voices representing the video's subjects on the voiceover track (to this day, none of the following hosts have repeated this method, choosing instead to merely narrate the clips), and a segment called "Freeze Frame" which was a segment of videos with the song Freeze Frame played by the J. Geils Band. He left the show after eight seasons in 1997, but the show returned next season with new hosts, model Daisy Fuentes and stand-up comedian John Fugelsang, as well as a completely new look. Their trademark was the "Good-news, Bad-news segment" in which they show a segment of videos (and something funny happens), and in the end, they say something good about it. In 2000, they both left the show after three seasons. In 2001, it was added onto the line-up again as mid-season filler with Tom Bergeron, who continues to serve as the current host, and the show got another new look as well. His trademarks are a segment called "Tom's Home Movies", which was videos with Tom's head as the person in the video, and "VS.", which has two video categories facing off, but one video category wins in the end. In 2003, the show moved from a Friday slot at 8/7c to its current time on Sundays at 7/6c, and is currently in its 16th season. The show is rerun on WGN Superstation and ABC Family. At the height of its popularity in the early 1990s, it spawned a spin-off, America's Funniest People. America's Funniest Home Videos is ABC's third-longest running primetime series, behind only 20/20 and Primetime Live. The show has had multiple specials including a "Best of the Best" special where they gave a trip to Hawaii away and a "Disney Dream Vacation" special where the grand prize winner won a trip to all 11 Disney theme parks around the world. Both specials comprised of previous $100,000 winners. AFV is also well known for the host's humorous (sometimes not) wisecracking one-liners before or during the showing of a home video. It is produced by Vin Di Bona Productions and ABC Productions. It was distributed by MTM Enterprises from 1995-1998, 20th Century Fox Television from 1998-2000, and Buena Vista Television from 2000-present. Criticism America's Funniest Home Videos has gotten some criticism throughout its long run on ABC. The main criticism is the airing and sometimes winning of videos that are clearly staged. During the Bob Saget era, the video "Guy Drops Toilet Down Stairs" came under fire by critics for being staged yet still winning $10,000. Critics argued that it was staged due to the fact that videotaping yourself carrying an old toilet up a stairwell was highly unlikely, and the man's "accidental dropping" seemed like it was purposeful. See also * You've Been Framed - An almost identical British show * Australia's Funniest Home Video Show - Similar Australian show External links *[http://abc.go.com/primetime/americasfunniest/ AFV Web site] Category:ABC network shows Category:Reality television series Category:1980s TV shows in the United States Category:1990s TV shows in the United States Category:2000s TV shows in the United States